OLD AGE AND TREACHERY WILL OVERCOME YOUTH AND SKILL.
And on the eighth day God said, "Okay, Murphy, you're in charge!"
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Tuesday, July 3, 2018

Spotted In My Hometown

As a Mitsubishi Mighty Max owner, I was pleased to talk to this gentleman.Dodge sold the Mighty Max as the D-50 and Plymouth as the Arrow.This is a D-50, 1986 2.6 5 speed 4x4 one owner. The gentleman standing in front of it bought it for, he remembers, $11,204. Some of his children drove it from time to time. Told me it has had one repair, the valve gasket repaired, and he spent $48 for the Ram hood ornament.Reminds me the valve cover gasket riding around in my pickup bed needs to be installed.He vehemently states the truck is not for sale.Not a speck of rust on it (very, very rare) and the paint, other than the hood, looks new.The encounter made me smile.

I only know Mitsu from their various performance cars, but always noticed that they were a cut (or two) below in the quality of their materials and body/paint. The interiors got shabby after ~18 months, and were falling apart in 3 or 4 years. The paint lost it's luster (and usually the clear coat, too) after 5 years.

The Starion Turbos were fast, and handled very well for the day. They had a reputation for being bottle rockets if you turned up the boost, but whoo-whee did they scoot! Good brakes, too. So good in fact that they made a great "Big Brake Kit" for my generation of Supras.

An 80's Japanese anything is a rust bucket waiting to happen. My car came from Riverside, California, which is high-desert, and had extremely minimal rust on it. Just around the battery tray (they all rust there), and people back East couldn't believe it. BUT...I looked at a couple of cars that lived their entire life within a few miles of the beach, and they had holes rusted through them so big you could stick your fist through them.

Only cars that bad were Fiats, which I heard came pre-rusted from the factory......

Often you will see the trucks with beds rusting much more than the cabs. Due to tariffs, the trucks came into the ports without beds. The beds were made, and painted, in Korea then mated to the cab/chassis at the port of entry. As bad as the Japanese vehicles were for rust, the Korean steel and paint were far worse.

The one Japanese brand not known for rusting was Suzuki. USA cars? Vegas rusted in the showrooms. I owned one. No rust but a P.O.S. in almost every way. Dumb as I am, also owned a Chevette.

When you are cheap and in the car biz, you can prove you are as dumb as your customers.

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About Me

Semi retired road warrior, car salesman, occasional repo man. Father of three fine sons. Once a Blue Dog Democrat. Once a soldier; once a pilot. Rolling along life's highway proving there is no fool like an old fool.